Other Moonshots
Hyperloop: The proposed ‘Hyperloop technology’ is said to be 2x faster than a passenger jet, 20x the speed of a commuter train and could travel Brisbane to Melbourne in an hour. Electricity would be generated by solar panels on top of the capsules that carry the passengers. Capsules will be in a chain of 40 with the capability of transporting up to 28 people each. The capsules will travel in elevated tubes supported by concrete pylons next to the highway. The capsules will run on cushions of low-pressure air inside the tubes. Mind Control: It can be used as a way of changing an opinion or view. But is mind control actually real? However, many people do seem to think so. Cheryl Welsh believes she has been the target of a secret U.S. government mind-control experiment for almost 30 years. She noticed electrical appliances were “remotely targeted to harass” her. Phones, cars, typewriters, and TVs would stop working at inopportune times. She says staged situations played out on the street in front of her, engineered by strangers who appeared to know exactly what she was thinking. She set out to find others who had experienced similar phenomena and found that she was not alone. Welsh eventually came to the conclusion that she was the subject of covert U.S. government testing. After all, she explains, who but the government possesses the technological know-how to cause what she was experiencing? First Manned Flight: The Wrights made the first sustained, controlled, powered, ‘heavier-than-air’, manned flight on December 17, 1903. They tested many shapes and sizes of the aeroplane for 3 years. Before designing and using a wind tunnel to help figure out the shape of the glider in 1902. After finding the perfect shape they set off to find an engine for the craft. In the end, they had an engine equipped with over 12 horsepower. The glider, cleverly called the "Flyer", lifted from a patch flat round at 10:35 a.m. on December 17, 1903. The plane weighed about six hundred pounds. The first flight travelled 120 feet in 12 seconds. But the Flyer was unstable and very hard to control. Supersonic Travel: A supersonic vehicle will have to travel at speeds faster than Mach 1. A hypersonic vehicle will have to travel at speeds greater than Mach 5. The first aircraft to hit supersonic (Bell X-1) was ridden in 1947 by Air force captain, Charles (Chuck) yeager. Supersonic aircraft have mainly been used for research and military purposes although two commercial planes called the Concorde and the Tupolev tu-144 could reach such speeds but both of these aircraft have already retired. Global Circumnavigation: A circumnavigation of an island would be a journey that completely encircles the earth. On a flat plane, a circumnavigation is a simple concept; however, defining a circumnavigation of the earth is more complicated due to the spherical characteristics of earth. It could be argued that a circumnavigation of the world is a journey of 40,075 km (the circumference of the world at its widest point) following a perfect circle around the planet. An example of the infinite possibilities for such a route would be following the Equator around the world. Another possibility would be a journey tracing the first and 180th meridian and intersecting both the north and south poles. In reality, due to physical barriers, it is impossible to follow such an arrow-straight route, therefore guidelines have been created to dictate how far a journey can stray from a great circle route (a perfect circle of 40,075 km) and still be classified as a circumnavigation. Using an aircraft however, makes things a lot easier. The only problem would where to land and refuel. Polynesian Exploration: We have evidence that the Polynesian people built large canoes that could transport up to 100 people. The canoes were up to 90 feet long. Two canoes could be placed side by side with a platform across them to support people, food, animals, seeds, etc. They could travel up to 2500 miles against the wind without landing. It is believed that once the voyage was complete, some of the travelers would be sent back 'home' to report the success of the voyage. And so the ancient Polynesians were able to explore the Pacific Ocean. De-extinction: De-extinction is a process in where you can bring back previously extinct animal by genetically modifying the extinct animals closest living relation until it is an exact replica. Then it is grown in an artificial womb. De-extinction has been done successfully once before in 2007 when a team of french and spanish scientists tried to bring back a species of goat called bucardo. Currently scientists are trying to bring back the Woolly Mammoth and the Passenger Pigeon Geoengineering: Climate change is a problem that needs to be resolved. It will cause sea levels to rise, glaciers to melt, habitat destruction and ocean acidification. Globally, 30 percent of species in the world will be at risk of extinction if climate change continues. These changes could also render vast swaths of the world inhospitable, increasing population density. This could have massive implications for the whole planet and the human race. Geoengineering is a valuable option that could resolve some of these problems. Geoengineering can be divided into two main categories- solar radiation management (SRM) and Carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Solar radiation management aims to reflect sunlight away from earth. Some examples of this include: putting massive sunshades in space, injecting aerosols into the stratosphere making clouds more reflective and increasing the ability of the Earth to reflect sunlight eg with reflective roofs or desert coverings. Taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere will reduce the greenhouse effect and stop global warming. Cancer cure: A new cancer treatment has potentially been found named “molecularly targeted therapy.” This drug is designed to specifically attack and kill the cancer cells. It is active against a rare form of Leukemia named chronic myeloid leukemia. These molecular “designer” drugs are created working backward from a known abnormal molecule specific to a certain type of cancer. Once the molecule is identified, a drug can be designed that interferes with that molecule. However this one drug goes towards only one rare cancer. We still have a long way to go. Another therapy has been developed where scientists take a white blood cell, modify it and then put it back in the body. This therapy has sparked excitement as 90% of terminally ill patients went into remission yet two patients died from an extreme immune reaction. The creation of the Internet: The first envisionment of the internet was in August 1962 by a man called J.C.R Licklider. He envisioned a globally interconnected set of computers through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from any site. This concept was very much like the Internet of today. ARPANET: The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was an early packet switching network and the first network to implement the protocol suite TCP/IP. Both technologies became the technical foundation of the Internet. Initial Interesting Concepts: The original ARPANET grew into the Internet. Internet was based on the idea that there would be multiple independent networks of rather random design, beginning with the ARPANET as the pioneering packet switching network, but soon to include packet satellite networks, ground-based packet radio networks and other networks. The Internet as we now know it uses a key underlying technical idea, namely that of open architecture networking and complex designs.